April Bass at Lake Guntersville
with Curt Staley
Most bass fishermen would pick April as the best month of the year for fishing. And most bass fishermen would pick Lake Guntersville as the best bass lake in Alabama for an incredible catch. So, put the two together and pick Guntersville as your lake to fish every chance you get right now.
Guntersville is an incredible bass fishery with most major tournament trails scheduling events on it each year. State trails, local pot tournaments and club tournaments are held there every week. The lake is often covered with tournament fishermen practicing or fishing an event and hundreds of other bass fishermen are on the lake testing its waters.
Built in 1939 on the Tennessee River, Guntersville is a Tennessee Valley Authority lake with 67,900 acres of bass filled waters and has 890 miles of shoreline. But the shoreline is not as critical as it is on other lakes since the lake has vast shallow flats and grass beds even in the middle along the old river channel. Guntersville is definitely a bass factory.
In the 2008 Bass Information Team Report, (BAIT) Guntersville showed the highest average weight for a bass in tournaments and also was the lake where it took the least amount of time to catch a bass weighing over five pounds.
But it can be tough fishing. Guntersville ranked 19th out of 20 lakes in the survey in percent of success and dead last in the number of bass caught per angler day. Part of those low numbers are due to the 15 inch size limit, making it harder to bring in a keeper bass in a tournament.
So, you have a better chance of catching a five pound plus bass on Guntersville than any other lake in the state but you will not catch a lot of keeper bass. The ones you do catch will be fat and healthy, and the 15 inch size limit insures a good future supply of bigger bass, but there will be frustrating days where the catch rate is very low.
Good advice will help you catch more bass this month on Guntersville and Curt Staley can provide the information you need. Curt moved to the Guntersville area as a teenager 16 years ago when his father moved there for a job. Since Curt has been fishing since he was big enough to walk, and his father was a bass tournament fisherman, competing on the old Redman trail as well as others, it was like throwing a rabbit into a briar patch. It was a perfect fit.
Curt took advantage of living near the lake and studied it carefully. For the past ten years he has been guiding on Guntersville as well as fishing as many tournaments there as possible. He fishes about 290 days a year and 240 of them are on Guntersville, so he knows the movements of bass there very well.
Last year Curt placed second in the BASS Weekend Series Alabama North circuit, after winning the points race in 2008 on that trail. He placed third in the regionals and then came in 18th in the nationals in 2008 and 9th in 2009. Curt is on the Triton Pro Staff through The Boat House in Athens and is a tough competitor, and Guntersville is his favorite lake.
“Our major spawn on Guntersville is in mid-April, but waves of bass move into the spawning flats from late March to May,” Curt said. He expects to catch bass shallow from now through April, and will catch prespawn fish, fish on the beds and post spawn fish.
One great thing about Guntersville is the way you can find huge spawning flats that may contain hundreds of bass at any time this month. You can start on the contact points where the prespawn fish first move in and where they hold in post spawn, and go just a short distance and find others on the bed.
Curt fishes shallow this time of year, fishing water two to six feet deep. But he slows down. Curt says the bass are less aggressive now, especially the bigger ones, so gone are the rattle baits and other fast moving baits. He will have a split shot Baby Brush Hog, a Senko, and a Lil Hustler jig and Zoom Craw rigged up for catching fish now.
Curt does not look for bass on the bed to sight fish for them but will cast to them if he spots a big female. His methods catch bedding bass but it is often hard to spot the beds on Guntersville so he fishes the bedding flats knowing he will drag his bait across beds.
He will also watch for light spots that indicate a hole in the grass on them, It might be a bed, it might be a stump, or it might just be a hole in the grass where the bottom is hard, but bass will be there no matter what caused it.
On a cold, windy day the last weekend in February Curt showed me some of his best spots on the lake for April bass. The bass were still in the winter pattern but a few were trying to move up to the pre spawn areas even that early. Check out these ten spots now, they all be loaded with fish.
If you put in at the ramp across from Waterfront Grocery and Fishing Tackle you will be in the middle of all these spots and can get everything you need from tackle to grub at the store. The day we put in there were several tournaments out of this ramp and both parking lots were full, but a trailer set up there provided some fantastic BBQ for hungry fishermen.
1. N 34 31,513 – W 86 09.825 – Run up to Preston Creek and stop at the middle point between the two forks. It is a steep point with riprap around it and nice houses on the hill. Curt likes to start on the point where the rock seawall ends and the riprap starts and work to the right, toward the fork of the creek with the small island in the mouth of it.
“Bass move into this creek by the thousands to spawn,” Curt said. They will hit this main point and the island then move on back on both forks to spawn. After the spawn they move back out to the point and island on the way back to deeper water, so you can catch them coming and going off the point and island and on the beds back in the shallow flats.
Keep your boat out in about ten feet of water and work a jig and pig, Senko or Baby Brush Hog on the rocks around the point. Concentrate on the areas where there are bigger rocks and also the wood cover. Fish around the docks carefully, bass often hold on them. Jump over to the island and fish around it, too, working the shallows where there are rocks and blowdowns.
After hitting these areas work on into the back of the creek, slowly working each of your baits along the bottom, dragging them through the beds that will be there even if you don’t see them. The bass will bed all over the right fork in two to six feet of water so don’t just cast to the bank, work the whole flat in those depths.
2. N 34 30.756 – W 86 08.419 – Across the lake you will see a line of islands across the mouth of a big slough. There is a church in the back so this is called Church House Slough and it a major spawning area. The bass will hold around the islands then move back into the slough to bed.
Start out in front of the islands and work them, fishing through the grass beds with one of your slower moving baits for bigger bass. We got a good keeper here the day we fished and bass will feed around the islands year round, so it is a good spot to hit.
Work on back into the slough, fishing slowly and looking for light spots in the grass in two to six feet of water. If you cast and hit a stump, work it hard. Hit it from all anglers. Curt says he is sure there is at least one bass beside every stump this time or year so he does everything he can to make it hit.
It is not unusual to catch more than one bass off a stump, too. Curt says he often takes three or four good fish off the same stump, so don’t move too fast. Give the bass a chance to bite. Remember that these bass tend to get sluggish near the spawn, so even if they are holding in the same areas where a rattle bait worked a few weeks ago you will do better now by slowing down.
3. N 34 29.293 – W 86 09.654 – Head down the lake to the next big slough on your left. Curt says this is Murphy Hill and it is just downstream of a big island. There is a small island in the mouth of Murphy Hill.
The downsream point of this slough has some rocks and as you go into the slough on that side there are a lot of blowdowns on the right bank back in the slough. Bass often hold in the wood cover to feed both pre and post spawn and will spawn around the trees, too.
All over the cove in the middle you will see lily pad stems sticking up and bass will feed and spawn around them, too. Work all around these shallow flats, probing for stumps and casting to light spots. Fan cast the whole area to drag your bait by a bedding bass.
Curt says one of his tricks it to rig the Baby Brush Hog on a split shot rig. He crimps two small split shots about 12 inches up the line from his bait and fishes it slowly over the flats. He says the split shot rig seems to catch more bass than either Texas or Carolina rigged baits. The light shot come through the grass and also makes you slow down.
4. N 34 29.019 – W 86 10.576 – Run downstream and you will pass two riprap points that run well off the bank. Past the second one a slough will open up on your left just past a duck blind on the point. Go into the slough and start fishing just inside the duckblind.
Curt said last year he and a partner fished this slough for three hours and landed 65 bass in April. That gives you an idea of the numbers of fish that can be spawning in these coves. This one has a little deeper water in it that some others and seems to attract bigger bass.
One of the reasons Curt likes this slough so much is he landed his best Guntersville bass here. He caught a 12 pound, 4 ounce beauty here in April and released it to spawn, and possibly be caught again.
As you fish this slough work both arms of it. As you round the middle flat point with another duck blind on it, you will see a refrigerator on the bank, which will tell you this is the right area to be working. There are also some blowdowns on the bank past it toward the river that hold fish.
5. N 34 28.172 – W 86 11.321 – A little further downstream a string of islands sits out from Mountain Lakes Resorts and you want to fish around them. Go in behind the first island, the one out from the campground, and fish the back side of it up to the firs gap. Work the gap, especially if some wind is blowing through it. Wind will move the baitfish through gaps like this and bass will follow to feed on them.
Fish the front side of the next island and work it carefully. Wind blowing in on this bank will improve the fishing it is not too strong. Keep your boat well off the band make long casts, probing for underwater cover like rocks.
Behind the islands look for shallow flat points running out and you will find bass spawning on them. Fan cast all over shallows you find here. Stumps hold bass here as in other places.
Curt likes to fish his Lil Hustler jig on 17 to 20 pound fluorocarbon line and uses 15 pound fluorocarbon on his split shot Baby Brush Hog and Senko. The heavier line is necessary for the big fish you will hook and the grass they can get into. But the clearer line helps you get more bites.
6. N 34 33.605 – W 86 07.947 – Head back up the river on the other side to the first opening into Mink Creek. There are several islands across the mouth of the creek and the main channel is upstream, but go in through the first gap you come to running upstream.
Ahead of you when you come through the gap you will see a shallow flat point with a two door beige boat house to the left of it. Out on the end of the point there are several stumps and rootballs piled up on the bank right at the water’s edge.
There are lots of shallow flat points covered with stumps in this area. Curt starts at the boathouse, fishing around it then working out onto the big flat point. Work all around it, staying way out on one pass then closer in on the next. Try to cover all the water two to six feet deep in the area.
There are some incredible five-fish limits caught at Guntersville each April. Curt’s best was five weighing 27 pounds, nine ounces and he sees 30 pound plus limits in many tournaments. Fishing areas like this are where many such limits are caught.
7. N 34 34.644 – W 86 07.255 – Go to the bridge and under the tunnel in Mink Creek and start fishing the riprap on your right. Work it to the bank, crawling your jig and pig along the rocks and grass in this area. The riprap holds both pre and post spawn fish.
When you get to the bank fish across the mouth of the small inlet and up the bank past the area where people fish from the bank. Further up the bank you will see an old boat filled with tires in the shallow water. Fish past it, working the grass. Curt got two nice keepers here on his jig and pig and a smaller keeper on a rattle bait the day we fished.
Toward the bank of the creek you will see a power line crossing and on the right bank there is a sign about dredging. If you head toward the sign, as a 90 degree angle to the power lines, you will find a spring. You can see it by the green water coming out of it. The bottom around it is two to four feet deep but it drops to 15 feet in the spring.
The GPS coordinates on the spring are N 34 34.885 – W 86 07.335. Fish all around the spring. Fish often hold in the deep hole and feed on the edges, and the water coming out is a stable temperature.
After fishing this hole ease toward the power lines there is another hole that drops to over 20 feet deep. There is no water flow here to see but fish still hold in the deep water and come to the edges to feed. The holes are just a few yards across so you may have to look hard to find them.
8. N 34 32.266 – W 86 06.314 – Run across to South Sauty Creek and go in between the upstream bank and the first island. The main channel is downstream and there will be big open water to your right past the island.
Ahead of you there is a group of houses then banks with trees and some pockets with reeds in the back. Curt starts fishing on the clay point on the left across from the last house and works around the point, then across the big flat. Fish into the pockets with reeds in the back. Bass bed all over these flats and in the pockets between the clay point and the houses.
If the water is fairly clear Curt likes a watermelon, watermelon/purple flake and watermelon candy Baby Brush hog on his split shot rig. He will use a black and blue jig in stained water but go to a watermelon jig and trailer in clear water. For his Senko fishing Curt usually uses green pumpkin or black.
9. N 34 31.723 – W 86 06.573 – Out in the middle of the big open water the creek channel makes a sharp bend around a four foot deep hump and bass hold on the channel and feed on the hump, and will bed around it, too. To find the hump line up the last downstream island out in the mouth of the creek with the red boat house on the far bank. Also look to the bridge and line it up with the last upstream gap in the islands. That will put you near the hump.
Fish all around this area, watching your depthfinder until you find the shallow hump. Then work around it, fishing the edges of the channel and on top of the hump, too. This area is especially good when water is being pulled at the dam and current moves across it.
10. N 34 31.154 – W 86 05.252 – Run to the bridge in South Sauty Creek and go under it. To your left you will see a campground on a big point across from a big two story house sitting by itself on a flat bank. Go toward the front of the house and look for a seawall just to the right of it, going into the big cove there. There are two big trees standing in the open behind the seawall.
The seawall is hard to see but you need to start fishing out in front of it and work all the way around the cover to your right. Fish to the big shallow point on the other side of the cove. Bass will hold on the points and bed all over this shallow area.
These ten spots will give you a starting point for catching April Guntersville bass. Fish them and get an idea of the kinds of places Curt likes to fish, then you can find similar places all over the lake, from the day all the way up the river. Get in on some of the fabled spring fishing at Guntersville right now.
To book a trip with Curt to see how he fishes the lake call him at 256-990-0376 or visit his website and email him through it at ww.gundervillebass.com.